"New threads go to the top of the Classifieds. If someone adds a post to an ad, why should that make it go back to the top? The idea is for items that have been for sale longer to be at the bottom and newly put up for sale items go to the top. If we did it like the forums then everybody would be bumping their ad every day and we'd never know which ads are old and which are new. If an item doesn't sell, it should be at the bottom, not the top. I will sort the new Classifieds this same way."

His position makes sense, bumping could be annoying and even if not allowed per se, people would still do it. However, The most recent replies are important for updates of price drops or status on whether someone ended up buying a certain item.

Maybe there could be a time window where items that are 10+ days or something inactive that have a post would be bumped to the top because they likely are pretty far down the page and not looked at all as long. Bumping would still likely happen but at least in those cases it would be more appropriate. Just an idea

Bumping is good. I've sold a ton of stuff on various forums and have bumped items all the time. Most sites have a rule of one bump per day - which is reasonable. If some schmo spends 5 minutes listing an ad and forgets about it, but I check my ads every day and respond to questions in the post - why shouldn't my ad go back to the top?

^^^ Because it's not selling, so there is probably something wrong with your product or price, especially if you're putting in that much effort and still not getting any bites. Doesn't sound like a deal. Sounds like a product that should be at the bottom.

Ray, you are not the norm (no offense). Most people don't read the Classifieds like a discussion board. Believe me, way more people would be complaining to me if they had to look at the date or the "New" image to find out what items were recently posted because that's the way that most people use the Classifieds.

Working on an entire new Classifieds program for the new website as we speak, so this point will be moot in a month or two.

Maybe I don't understand because I've never listed anything for sale here.

Usually anytime a comment is posted to the listing the post goes back to the top. This includes comments posted by me - the post author - aka the "bump" post.

If I post an item for sale on your site and you ignore posts / questions about the listing and let it fall to the bottom along with other listings that have gotten no interest - I can't understand the logic behind that.

You seem to discount the value behind the "effort" involved in keeping the listing fresh. Why would you value a listing posted on Jan 2 over one posted on Jan 1 when the the Jan 1 listing is generating 10x the interest and traffic as the one posted on Jan 2? That makes no sense to me.

You're running a traffic driven site here right? Why not put the freshest content - classifieds or not in front of your visitors.

Why would you value a listing posted on Jan 2 over one posted on Jan 1 when the the Jan 1 listing is generating 10x the interest and traffic as the one posted on Jan 2?

The goal of a classified ad section is not to "generate traffic" just for the sake of generating traffic. The goal is to provide a place where people can efficiently buy and sell items. How well that goal is met determines how much traffic the classifieds will generate.

Similarly, the goal of an ad is not to "generate interest." You can have all the activity you want on your classified thread (increased short-term traffic), but if nobody buys your item, it has failed. Repeating this failure will eventually reduce traffic in the long term.

Put another way, why should an ad that's written well, covers all details, includes photos and basically leaves the potential buyer with no questions be passed over by an ad that is so poorly written that the buyers have to ask many follow up questions, request pics, clarification, etc. that then need to be answered by the seller?

So, you're right, I do discount the effort involved in "keeping an ad fresh." That just seems like fancy wording for answering questions that I should have answered in my original ad post.

I posted up a few boards I was looking to possibly get rid of and didnt get any hits until almost a month later when I got two hits and at that point had actually forgotten I had listed my boards. Now if I respond, they have to look down the page a bit to see my response.

IMO bumping, top posting, etc is extremely irritating to me as a shopper, and makes you look desperate. People that are serious about finding something are going to use the search function anyway. If you want to "keep your ad fresh" and generate new leads, drop the price! People will miraculously notice that whether it goes to the top of the list or not.

Take a look around the web - every other boating site is making a priority of classifieds and swap-shops etc. They reward the seller that engages the buyer and keeps the forums and classifieds active - but whatever works for you I guess. That's why I don't list anything for sale here - why bother.